Does anyone know why people throw coins through the grate outside the entrance to the Sphinx in Egypt?

Question

I remember doing it when I visited, and making a wish, but can't seem to find any significance as to why or how this tradition was started.

Answer 1

You are quite right. there is no significance or link with the tossing of money into the grating placed over the entrance to the Sphinx temple attributed to Khafre.the temple was discovered only in the 1920's.
None of the so called "Good Luck" or "Make a Wish" statues,places and oasis', have any connection with ancient Pharonic Egypt.
There is one notable exception,the Sacred Lake at Karnak.
It has been the belief of the local population from the earliest post dynastic times, that wading into this lake would help a women to conceive a child.
Unfortunately these days the practise is banned on health grounds. As the lake is full of a very toxic algae.This is where it gets is brilliant green colour from.
Tossing the coins into the temples covering,
collecting and taking home a vial of Nile water, walking around the well known Lucky Scarab etc is fun but, there is no connection to the wealth of mythology or like beliefs from ancient Egypt.
In Pharonic times the majority these areas would have all been well out of access by the general population.
It is just a way of adding a little modern magic to a country that has an abundance of magic and mythology from the first days of man's civilisation.

Answer 2

It is believed that when they throw coins in that crypt they will come back again. That place you are talking about near the sphinx is where a statue of the King Kefren who built the middle pyramid was found about 100 years ago. The statue is now at the Egyptian museum. It was kept there and forgotten. The priests of that temple kept it in that crypt to protect it during the revolution that took place between the old and middle kingdoms.

Answer 3

I just came back myself. I'm not sure why, but I know what ur talking about. It's like a little square hole with a rugged grate over it that looks like a gate door or something. Saw American dollars, Egyptian pounds, even yen thrown down there, lol. I think at night the guards collect it and distribute it among themselves, lol! Just kidding!

Did you circle the scarab in Luxor?

Answer 4

If you know why people do the same at the Fontana di Trevi in Rome Italy you will know why people do that at the Sphinx iin Egypt

Answer 5

I think it's non-sense only the Egyptian want money as they always doo .. people in Egypt die for money.. They rip forigner off in many ways..

Answer 6

it's quite new, they came up with the wishing well idea, merely to collect money, nothing to do with pharaohs, history or egyptian traditions.

Answer 7

Mere stupid tradition